The Dangers of Celebrity Endorsements

There is denying the fact that this country of ours treats its celebrities with an unhealthy degree of respect and adoration. While this usually isn’t an issue when it comes to things such as fashion and lifestyle, it takes a significantly darker turn when celebrities are trusted for their health advice. While many celebrity doctors are legitimate doctors with degrees, people need to remember that they are still celebrities and are looking to make money and play to the masses. Doctor Mehmet Oz is one of those celebrity doctors who has taken a once legitimate medical career and has started pandering to the masses for money. Recently his actions and endorsements have brought scrutiny upon him, his show, and his practice by the federal government.

Led by senator Claire McCaskill, lawmakers in DC brought Doctor Oz before them and chastised him for using his pulpit to promote shoddy fad diets and potentially unhealthy weight-loss tips and supplements. The lawmakers made the point to not only chastise the good doctors for his shady advice, but also to ask him to please actually work towards helping fight the obesity epidemic that is sweeping the country. It is incredibly sad that someone who has so much reach over such a wide variety of people and who is also a trained and licensed medical professional chose to line his own pockets over help those who look to him for advice. It’s even sadder that it took a governmental hearing for him to realize that he was in the wrong and that maybe, he should actually try to help. I don’t know if Doctor Oz learned his lesson from this but I can only hope that he will actually try to promote legitimate practices now.